A New Call-to-Action: Strong Is the New Skinny!

Let’s forget about politics and focus on our biggest challenge in women’s health, according to Dr Janine Clayton, the new NIH Director of the Office of Women’s Health. This is a topic I have been mulling over for some time, both in myReal Women on Health on-line radio showthree weeks ago with Dr. Clayton, and later in myHuffington Postand onmy personal blog.

Health care marketers today have a great opportunity to help 40 million boomer women to fight heart disease, reduce their risk for heart disease and live longer and better than their ancestor sisters. For sure, this is a significant and compelling marketing challenge, that goes beyond new technology, devices and diagnostics. Thesestats from the Women’s Heart Foundationtell a disheartening lifestyle story for 8 million women living with heart disease, especially the 35,000 under age 65.

• 42% of women who have heart attacks die within 1 year, compared to 24% of men.• Under age 50, women’s heart attacks are twice as likely as men’s to be fatal.• Nearly two-thirds of the deaths from heart attacks in women occur among those who have no history of chest pain

What’s the Culprit We Need to Highlight?Inflammation, increased blood pressure and the risk of stroke.

What’s the Barrier We Need to Address?How to empower women to reduce inflammation and change their lifestyle, unassociated with pain or fever.

Conveying the science is critical to empowering women to change their lifestyle. Women need and want proof that your solution is going to reduce the risk of heart disease and help them look good and feel good. While the ubiquitous red dress is helpful, let’s be clear. It’s no longer good enough for a woman’s red dress to mask her quite high BMI (over 35) even though she looks and feels great in it.

Begin with Educational Marketing!

The science behind heart disease can start out simply by educating women about burning calories and reducing fat. There are several ways to accomplish this, through proper nutrition and exercise, but speeding up a slowing metabolism, especially in midlife, is the big idea.

The problem for communicators is the vague meaning of the word “metabolism”. First, it’s four syllables and not at all “catchy”. Second, metabolism is about “science”…not about “looking good or feeling good”. Therefore, most women won’t find the rationale empowering or fun.

If you’re a lifescience marketer, you must connect the science with what matters most to women. Your friends and foes are the women’s magazines and the fashion industry (save for Tyra Banks’ recent admonition of waif models). Both have convinced most girls by 7 years of age that thin is good. This has absolutely nothing to do with speeding up metabolism through exercise and proper nutrition.

Our collective mission is this: We need to encourage women toget strong not skinny.Muscle power is the engine that burns fat. Here’sone way to fire up the muscle power:Strength training.

Join the conversation here at KC Health. Let’s pick up on the popular “like” for Mrs. Obama’s inaugural red dress and her strong arms to shift a marketing mindset change so women can finally Get Strong…Not Skinny!

Fitness trends come and go but being fit and strong is what stays with you.Being strong is a key factor in longevity and an extended life.It is therefore becoming increasingly necessary,especially for women,to change their sedentry lifestyle so as to get rid of a number of health problems,they would otherwise be facing.And this can only be gained by proper nutrition.Being strong is necessarialy not being thin,and this is possible only if you fire up the muscle power.Doing a little of weight training exercises along with a balanced diet will also help tone up your body muscles thus making them look lean and your body thin and also retaining its strength.